About the Independence Hall Association

The Independence Hall Association was founded in Philadelphia on June 30, 1942, by representatives of more than fifty civic, historical, and patriotic organizations, to spearhead the creation of Independence National Historical Park. The campaign succeeded: Congress established the park in 1948, and custody of Independence Hall and its neighboring shrines passed to the National Park Service in 1951, with the association at the table throughout.

In the decades since, the IHA has remained an independent group of private citizens consulting on matters concerning the park. It helped reconstruct the Declaration House, where Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence, donated the Signer statue that stands in Signers' Garden, and encouraged the development of guidebooks to historic Philadelphia.

On July 4, 1995, the association carried its mission onto the web, publishing as ushistory.org. The site has grown into one of the preeminent providers of US history online: complete free textbooks, the founding documents, and the people and places of the nation's founding, used by students, teachers, and visitors around the world.

The IHA is a Pennsylvania nonprofit corporation, exempt from federal income tax as a public charity under sections 501(c)(3) and 509 of the Internal Revenue Code, governed by a volunteer board of directors.

The association's records, including the full story of the campaign that created the park, are preserved in the records of the association.